Trial in Cortez killing delayed

The trial of Tammy Lynn George, accused of murder in the first homicide of 2006, has been delayed until at least March.

George, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Mimi Marie Pace, 42, who was found lying in a pool of blood in her Sunny Shores mobile home on Jan. 2, 2006.

A trial date had been set for one year to that date — Jan. 2, 2007. But during a docket sounding to review the status of the case in late December, George’s attorney requested a continuance and filed a waiver of a speedy trial. Public Defender Steven A. Schaefer is representing George.

Another docket sounding is scheduled for Feb. 26 and a trial by jury is tentatively scheduled for the week of March 5 at the Manatee County Courthouse.

The next two months, according to court records, will be spent partly taking depositions.

George was arrested at the scene of the killing and, allegedly before she was given her Miranda warning, confessed. "I stuck her and twisted it all around," George allegedly told law enforcement officers, according to court records.

Court documents detail the morning of Pace’s death, beginning with Pace and her boyfriend, Scott Conklin, moving from another residence at Sunny Shores into George’s home in the 3700 block of 115th Street Court West.

Pace, Conklin and George were in George’s home that day, arranging possessions. Conklin left at about 10 a.m. to retrieve some items from the previous residence, leaving Pace and George alone.

He was sent back to George’s home by a neighbor who reported hearing screams.

Conklin tried to get into the home, then looked through the bedroom window and saw Pace on the floor. He entered through the window and called Pace’s name, but she didn’t respond.

In the bedroom, authorities found blood scattered and beside Pace’s body, a bloody kitchen knife and aluminum bat.